Wallace wants to get back in green
David Wallace has missed out on the World Cup due to injury. The Irish flanker is a Guinness rugby ambassador and fans can get all the latest news on www.facebook. com/GuinnessRugbyIreland
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"Sorry to interrupt, but I'd just like to point out, this isn't a career-ending injury."
Matt Cooper is interviewing two of the Wallace brothers in front of a live audience and has the temerity to ask Paul to compare the feeling of losing his rugby days to injury with what David is going through, but the younger sibling is having none of it. Test Lion, winner of two Heineken Cups, a Grand Slam and 72 Ireland caps -- David Wallace may be down, but he isn't out.
When the mobile stretcher carted him off to the dressing room in the final World Cup warm-up game against England, the Aviva Stadium rose to its feet. The feeling persisted that taking a giant hit from Manu Tuilagi was his last act in a green jersey, that the veteran was bowing out on somebody else's terms.
He may be 35 and facing up to nine months of rehabilitation, but his mind has turned towards the future -- 2015, England and the World Cup. He's used to people smirking when he mentions it, but Wallace is serious.
He knows the selectors may end his dream. At 39, logic dictates that he isn't one for the future. "Look at (38 year-old Argentine Mario) Ledesma," he argues.
Even before the injury, the thought was in his mind that after this tournament, the selectors would look elsewhere, but now that he is missing out, he is determined to go on.
"Yeah, it did cross my mind. Not just for the full season, but even after the World Cup. Not even from my own perspective, but the Irish management and are they looking to another four years and trying to bring through players," he explains.
"I think I'd like to keep playing for Ireland as long as the management is okay with that, but I understand that maybe I won't be there for the next World Cup. I say maybe and people laugh at that, but maybe I will, if things go well. I see you smiling, but I think the fact that I missed this one has made me hungrier to play and keep playing. Maybe I'm mad, but that's just my natural way of thinking I don't know.
"I supposed the other thing you have to weigh up, it's one thing wanting to stay on and keep playing, but you want to set yourself up for life after rugby too and the longer you go on, maybe, the harder it is. So, whether you have to give a little bit in that regard I don't know."
He knew on impact that Tuilagi had ended his World Cup. Time slowed down, the reality of all that he had worked for slipping away in the split seconds hit him before the pain took over.
"The first 48 hours were hard," Wallace admits. "Before I even hit the ground, I was fully aware of the consequences of the tackle and what I had done. You can feel things going and by the time I hit the ground I was saying to myself, 'that's my World Cup gone'. Then it was just: 'S**t this hurts'."
His race was run. This morning, Sean O'Brien wears the jersey that Wallace has made his own in the last five years. It is O'Brien who has been answering questions about marking David Pocock, who will sing 'Ireland's Call' and take on the world.
Wallace will be watching in the 'O2', giving half-time analysis in front of a live audience, who will forego their cornflakes for some popcorn. Becoming a pundit isn't where he sees himself when he finishes, but it keeps him busy these days, gets him out of the house.
It's when you hear him describe in clinical terms what exactly happened his knee that the reality of his season hits home.
"I ruptured my medial, I ruptured my cruciate and I broke off my meniscus which is a type of cartilage at the top of your fibula -- a spongy bit that takes the impact -- and I dented the upper part of my knee as well. A bit of cartilage, so they did a bit of micro-fracturing which Rob Kearney had done recently. They drill into it a bit, make it bleed," he explains.
"Those are the four main things I did. The programme of recovery means I'm on crutches and in a brace for six weeks and they kind of say it's a six to nine month period -- but it might be five in some cases and I'm hoping it will be a bit sooner. Depending on how things go, how complicated it is and how quickly the range comes back.
It's the small things that are keeping Wallace happy. There was no medal to be won last week, but the victory of being able to do a full rotation on a bike was his to cherish. Progress, that's what the next few months are set to be about.
"It's been a bit difficult like any injury. You're incapacitated, you can't drive, you can't leave the house. It's bad for the psyche, but at least there's plenty of rugby on to keep me entertained.
"You have good days and bad days. Today is certainly a good day, I almost feel like I can walk on it. I only started on the bike this week, going backwards and forwards. I couldn't do a full revolution.
"Colm Coakley, our (Munster) physio, said I should be able to cycle by the end of the week. I said: 'No chance'. Went in Tuesday, 'no chance', Wednesday, the same. It was a little bit better and then today I just went for it and got it."
It's the little things will bring him back.
These small cycles will ensure that he is in the mix for the next big one. Wallace wants to soldier on, and who's to stop him?
- Ruaidhri O'Connor
Irish Independent
